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"We are going to focus on LIFE for Katya. I believe, one day, she will amaze the world."Dr. Ben Carson on Katya Dueck

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Speech Eval Update

On Sunday late afternoon, we dropped Kristina off with friends, and then Paul, Charity, Chad, Katya and I headed out of town to where we needed to spend the night in order to be at Katya's speech eval on time. We got there safely, got Katya bathed and into bed, where she fell asleep without too much issue, and then the rest of us got ourselves to bed too.

The next morning, we found where she was supposed to be after a little hassle, and met Kate, the SLP again. We had a very lively 2 hours with her. Katya was wary of her, and didn't want to interact much, but Kate was able to observe Katya interacting with us, and playing with toys, and doing some ASL with us, as well as making her latest and greatest "up"!

Kate, the SLP, is going to write up a long report and send it to us with her ideas/observations. However, she did already tell us a few things that are noteable.

#1. SLP said that given where Katya was a year ago,
she has made absolutely amazing progress in a year's time, esp given no more
therapy/support than she was given in school, no official therapy out of
school,and us just figuring things out and winging it
with her on our own. Kate said she would not have expected to see this level of progress given all that has gone on. She said clearly we are doing well with Katya, and that we
need to continue as we have been.

#2. She wants us to continue the ASL with her,
as she said Katya is obviously doing well with that, and it's working for her.

#3. SLP is going to put some thought into communication devices for her, and
make some possible recommendations. She is thinking we should start with an IPAD
and an app or two and see how that goes at this point.

#4. Kate was very
encouraged that Katya is continuing to be able to whisper "UP" for us, and she said that she feels like in terms of Katya's
speech development we need to consider her as a very, very young child
right now given her history/background/surgery. So she is HOPEFUL for more
speech in the future, though she admitted that Katya is certainly a case all her
own and that she has no other cases that are even similar to compare it to to
have any kind of an idea what might or might not be in her future in terms of
speech. But based on every thing we were able to tell her, she feels very
hopeful for Katya's future ability to communicate more and more at a fairly good
level, whether by signing, communication devices and/or speech.

After we were done with the eval, we went and got lunch, then thanks to the generosity of some local friends who arranged for us to borrow passes from a friend of theirs, we were able to go to the Creation Museum for a few hours and enjoy walking around there. It was a nice treat for all of us, and especially for Chad who has been longing badly to go to a Museum again. Very thankful for Laura and her thoughtful heart making this possible for us!

Katya wasn't too sure about the museum, but she did really well (for her) and by trading off which one of us were primarily caring for her, we were able to all get some enjoyment out of the time there. Katya enjoyed the 36 piece puzzle of Noah's ark and took it apart, then put it all back together with very little help from us! She stuck at it till it was all done. I was proud of her. ;-)

We got a few photos especially when we were walking around outside, so I hope to get those uploaded and share some of them another time. Now I need to switch loads of laundry around, and then get the rest of the items on Katya's back to school list! Katya will be going to her school's open house tonight, and then starting back to school on Thursday. When we ask her if she would like to go back to school, she smiles and signs "Yes" so I think she will be ready. This extended time at home (since her surgery in March) has been good for her, but I think it's time for her to go back to school. She needs the extra stimulation, and we need the chance to focus more on things that are getting neglected such as Chad needing more time and attention from his Mommy. Hopefully with Katya being able to understand more English, being in better health, and her being more secure, this school year will be a successful one for her, with lots of learning able to occur.